Victoe michaelis



v. MIOHAELIS. Apparatus for Manufacturing Vinegar. No. 221,564."

Pat e nted May 11.1880.

".PH'ERS, FHOTU-LITLIOGRAPHgR. WASHINGYON. D. O.

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UNITED STATES PAT - VICTOR MIOHAELIS, OE BOLLINGERGRUND, LUXEMBURG.

APPARATUS FOR-MANUFACTURING VINEGAR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 227,564., dated May 11,1880.

Application filed January 17, 1880. Patented in France September 26,1878, in Germany January 11, 1879, in Belgium January 28,1879, in ItalyJune 30, 1879, in Spain August 1, 1879, and in England October 6, 1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VICTOR MIGHAELIS, of the firm ofFR.MICHAELIs,resident of Rollin gergrnnd, in the Grand D'ukedom ofLuxemburg, have invented new and usefulImprovementsinApparatusforManufacturingVinegar, of which thefollowin gis a specification, and for which invention I have obtained LettersPatent in France under date of September 26, 1878, in Germany under dateof January 11, L879, Belgium, January 28, 1879, Italy, June 30, 1879,Spain, August 1, 1879, and in England October 6, 1879. v

My invention relates to a novel apparatus for manufacturing "inegar, andhas for its object the morespeedy acetification of the material orliquor employed.

The manner in which this object is effected with the improved apparatusconsists in the acetification of the liquor employed by repeatedlysaturating an acetifyin g or fermenting substance with said liquor,drawing off the surplus liquor after each saturation, and subjecting thesaturated acetifying or ferment- 2 5 ing substance to the action of acurrent of air to produce alcoholic fermentation and acetification.

The apparatus consists, chiefly, in its peculiar construction andarrangement, whereby v the above process is carried out rapidly,ecoaomically, and with great facility.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation FigsZand 3,vertical transverse sections, looking from front to the rear 15 and fromthe rear to the front of the apparatus, respectively and Fig.4 is avertical longitudinal section of the apparatus.

In carrying out the process I preferably employ beech-wood chips orshavings for produco ing the necessary termentation and acetification,though any other well known material may be employed.

In the accompanying drawings, A represents a cask or barrel of any,desired dimen- 5 sion, though I have found in practice that casks havinga capacity of about six hundred liters give the best results.

The cask A is divided into two unequal chambers, B G, by a wooden grate,a, the top space, or that B above the grate, being the smaller of thetwo. Immediately below the grate a, in the center of the rear head ofthe cask, is a feed-aperture, a, closed by a bung, stop-cock, orotherlike device, through which the chamberO is supplied with the liquorto be acetified. The chamber 0 is further provided with an air-supplycock, 1), arranged in the front head of the cask, and the chamber Bcommunicates with an air-discharge cock, 0, arranged on top of the casknear or at the rear head.

'61 is a drawing-oft cock arranged in the bottom of the cask at or nearits point of greatest convexity, and communicates with the lowerchamber, 0, which latter is also provided with a level indicator, 6,arranged in the front head for obvious purposes, while the chamber B isprovided with a thermometer, e, which enables the operator to ascertainat all times the progress of the operation of acetilication, avoidingthereby the necessity of sampling or testing the liquor, as the decreasein temperature will indicate the progress of the operation and enablethe operator to regulate the saturation of the beech-wood chips.

The upper chamber, B, havingbeen packed with beech-wood chips orshavings or other like substance, the operation of the apparatus is asfollows: When casks of the above-described capacity are employed thelower ch amber, O, is supplied with about two hundred and forty litersof liquor, introduced through the feed-aperture a in any convenientmanner and by any suitable means, either through an angular funnel, orthrough a flexible feedpipe coupled to afeed-cock and connected with at'eedtank, or by means of telescopic-jointed pipe, the drawing-oil cock(I being of course closed.

When the level-indicator indicates that the desired quantity of liquorhas been fed to the chamber 0 the feeding devices are discon-, nectedfrom the cask and the air supply and escape cocks be are closed and thebarrel or cask rolled upside down, to allow the liquor to flow throughthe grating a into chamber B to saturate the beech-wood chips orshavings. The apparatus is allowed to remain in this position for aboutfifteen minutes, more or less, or until the chipsare saturated with the100 liquor, when the barrel or apparatus is rolled back again into itsnormal position with the chamber B on top, as shown in the drawings. Allthe liquor not absorbed by the chips flows back again into chamber G,and the cocks b 0 being now opened, a current of air is established fromthe front to the rear of the cask, which will in a very short time causethe temperature of the beech-wood chips to rise, which rise willcontinue until the temperature in chamber B will be considerably abovethat of the surrounding atmosphere, and in this condition the apparatusis allowed to remain for a certain number of hours, when the operationof saturation is renewed as before, and repeated until all the liquor inthe apparatus is converted into vinegar, the time required being fromsixteen to nineteen days.

The number of daily saturations and the time required for the completeacetification of a charge of liquor will depend greatly on the materialemployed for producing the fermentation and acetitication, as well as onthe nature of the liquor to be aeetified, and when the acetification hastaken place (the time for which I have found never to exceed nineteendays) the vinegar is drawn off from chamber 0 through the drawing-offcock d and a new charge of liquor is supplied.

To prevent the beech-wood chips from penetrating in and obstructing thepassage of the air-escape cock 0, I surround the aperture with a wickergrating, D, as shown, or with a wooden perforated box attached to thecask by means of wooden pins.

In practice I arrange the casks in the factory in series of superposedtiers upon longitudinal girts or supports, leaving sufficient room atthe end of each tier to roll one cask completely over. By these meansone man can attend to a great number of casks, as he has, at statedperiods, but to roll the casks of each tier from one side to the other,turning each cask completely over, and by the time he has accomplishedthis the first casks turned over have remained in this position asufficient length of time to effect the resaturation of the beech-woodchips, and are then rolled back into their normal position. Thisoperation is efi'ected three or four times daily.

The filling may be efl'ceted by means of a flexible pipe, or a series ofsuch pipes, communicating with a common feed tank or reser voircontaining the liquor to be converted into vinegar, and, owing to theirflexibility and the short distance each cask has to travel when rolledover, need therefore not be disconnected from the cask after eachcharge, suitable stopcocks being provided to out OK the supply from thereservoir to the casks when the levelindicator shows that a suflicientquantity of liquor has been fed to the chambers O, and to facilitatethis the level-indicator may be arranged on the rear head of the cask.

In the manufacture of alcohol -vinegar I obtain the same results-4. 0.,the same percentage of acidity as is obtained with the usual graduators,while my apparatus has the advantage over said graduators in a saving ofalcohol as well as in the cost of construction and operation.

When vinegar is manufactured from materials that will, duringfermentation, produce large quantities of scum or slime like the juicesof fruit or vegetables, or honey, beer, or malt, and other likesubstances, the advantages of my apparatus over the usual graduators orupright converters will be still more apparent to those conversant withthis branch of manufacture, knowing, as they do, the time and labor thatare required to free these converters from such scum or slime, which ina short time renders them inoperative, and is to a great extent almost abar to their use, while the cleaning of my apparatus, or the removingtherefrom of any scum or slime, is effected rapidly and withcomparatively little labor by coupling a steam-conducting pipe to theair-inlet cock 1), opening the drawing-off cook 01, and closing theair-outlet cock 0. Steam is then introduced into the apparatus until thescum or slime is all removed, which is readily ascertained from the factthat when no more scum or slime is present in the apparatus thecondensed steam will run off clear from the cock d and the apparatuswill then be as efficient as it was when first put up.

Having now described my invention, whatI claim, and desire to secure byLetters Patent, is-

An apparatus for manufacturing vinegar, consisting of the cask orreceiver A, having open grating a, by which it is divided horizontallyinto two chambers of unequal capacity, the chamber 0, having air-inletb, a levelto 5 indicator, filling and discharge apertures, the chamberB, having air-outlet c, and thermometer c, all arranged, constructed,and operating substantially as and for the purpose specified.

In witness that I claim the foregoing I have 1 1o hereunto set my handthis 16th day ofDecer-nber, 1879.

VICTOR MIGHAELIS. Witnesses:

FoLsEHEID, KOSTERE.

